Advances in technology continue to provide alternatives for consumers in the telecommunication field. Telephony services provided by VOIP are now relatively commonplace. However, new implementations and capabilities, such as VOIP telephone service as compared with traditional wireline switch based services, also present challenges in providing comparable features and abilities provided by the existing technology. Sometimes the advantages of the new technology may give rise to challenges not faced by the existing technology.
For example, consider a VOIP/IP system that provides telephony services for users in a large office building or in a campus of related buildings. The use of VOIP telephones in such a system provides substantial flexibility in that a telephone can be easily moved to a new location or office within the system just by plugging the telephone in a different VOIP port. This minimizes the administrative and technical support and costs associated with relocating a person or a group from one location within the complex to another location.
However, this gives rise to an increased challenge with regard to providing effective emergency services in response to a 911 call origination. In a traditional wireline telephone system, each telephone was associated with a specific telephone line that was located in a predetermined location. The location of the telephone line/telephone, which did not change without a request being made to the telecommunication provider, could be stored in a database by the telecommunications provider and utilized in conjunction with providing emergency personnel with location information upon the user making a 911 emergency request. Because VOIP telephones are easily transportable at least within the designed system, determining the location of a VOIP telephone user initiating a 911 emergency request call is not as straightforward as it was with wireline telephones. Thus, a need exists for an improved and reliable way of maintaining the specific location of a VOIP telephone, especially one located within a multiple story building, that can be utilized to provide location information for 911 services.